I JUST WITNESSED AN ASSAULT ON A WOMAN | Stuart Knight

Posted by Stuart Knight

Women are experiencing violent assault every day and all of us (men and woman) are responsible for stopping it. Everyone knows it’s a problem, but what are you doing about it? And don’t say you can’t do anything about it. Sure, you can donate a little money to your friends campaign when they run or walk or bike to raise money for a charity that helps abused woman and that’s great. But, for most people reading this, there’s so much more that you can do. For starters, you have to say something when you see any type of behaviour that’s aggressive toward women. Don’t wait until you see someone being punched or slapped, but rather call it out when you see someone asserting a position of power over a woman with their voice or body language. Things are moving too slowly, because so many are too slow to say something. Yes, it’s uncomfortable, but that’s life sometimes. We have to get a little uncomfortable for change to happen.

Stuart, might I suggest a slight adjustment to your wording?
“For starters, you have to say something when you see any type of behaviour that’s aggressive toward anyone.” Probably shouldn’t be selective to women only.

A large percentage of domestic abuse involves women striking men. And when a man is being struck – that’s funny for some reason. And never (or very rarely) addressed.
This issue is very, VERY real.https://youtu.be/GccCWo_eZdw

Thanks for your comments Marjorie and you raise a very valid point. When I was encouraging people to stand up against men who abuse women, I didn’t mean that we shouldn’t stand up for men being abused by women. I was just trying to make a comment on what I had just seen on the street. If I had seen a woman beating up a man, my video would have been about that. Just throwing that out there for clarification. 🙂 Either way, your point is extremely important and something we all need to think about. Thanks!

As usual, someone comments that we need to include men in this message.

NO. Just no. The VAST majority of assaults are on women by men. That was the focus of your message. Period. Must we ALWAYS reference men in every conversation about violence no matter the context?!?!

Sheesh! Your video was specifically sharing an actual assault by a man on a woman. Do we EVER see this happening in public?

If people want to discuss violence against men – which I agree is equally unacceptable by the way – CREATE YOUR OWN VIDEO. It’s time we stop derailing any discussion about assault to centre men. Especially since men typically are better equipped to defend themselves physically, financially and socially. This entire culture is designed around male privilege. Enough already.

Thanks for your thoughts and I understand where you are coming from. I do agree that this is mostly an issue with men abusing women. However, I don’t think it takes away from that point when someone also reminds the viewer that we can’t ignore the issue when it’s the other way around. But I see what you’re saying. We don’t have to always bring in that side of the issue.